Apple Hits $194B in Cash Valuation; 61M iPhones Sold in Last Quarter

According to the latest computation, Apple has a new cash tally of $194 billion, thus continues to enjoy the status of the most valuable tech company in the world . Cash is used at the corporate scale to include accreted value that remains functionally liquid.

Although Apple has been stacking the cash in various vaults, the company is also growing its debt pool. Apple’s long-term debt rose from $28.99 billion at the end of its quarter concluding on September 27, to more than $40 billion at present.

As part of its earnings report, Apple told investors that it will increase its “Capital Return Program” to more than $200 billion, up more than 50 percent. Apple uses share buybacks and dividends to return cash to its shareholders, reports Techcrunch.

iPhones Propel Apple’s Overall Revenue Quarter

Apple’s iPhones drove the company to its second best overall revenue quarter ever. 61 million iPhones were sold by the Cupertino company in the March quarter. The company saw an increase of 40% in this quarter as compared to the same quarter of last year. The introduction of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus is the reason the increment.

Apple posted earnings of $2.33 per share on revenue of $58 billion, up from earnings of $1.66 per share (on a split-adjusted basis) on revenue of $45.6 billion a year earlier.

While iPhone sales and overall revenue were strong, other product categories are more uncertain. Sales of the iPad fell to 12.6 million in the most recent quarter from more than 16 million in the same quarter of last year, depicting a slower upgrade cycle and the possibility that the larger iPhones are overshadowing the need for tablets.

As expected, Apple did not break out hard numbers for the Apple Watch, the new line of smartwatches (which can be easily scratched) that went on sale in stores on Friday.

According to Apple CEO Tim Cook, the demand for the watch has outpaced supply, but the company has “made progress over the last week or so” to improve that. “It is a new product for us and with any kind of new product you end up taking some time to fully ramp,” Cook added.

Apple Mac Sales Up 10% Year on Year Despite Global Decline In PC Shipments

As of Macs, Apple sold approximately 4.6 million this quarter as per the company’s Q2 2015 earnings report, representing year-over-year growth of 10 %, with 4.1 million Macs sold in the same quarter last year.
Apple had sold 5.5 million Macs in the last quarter which means Apple Mac sales declined by 17% quarterly. However, interestingly enough, Gartner reports that worldwide PC shipments were down 5.2% overall in the first quarter of 2015, as compared to the same time last year. Still, Apple maintained growth in its Mac division.